Amalgam Comics
Amalgam Comics was a metafictional American comic book publisher, and part of a collaboration between Marvel Comics and DC Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters to create new ones (e.g. DC Comics' Batman and Marvel's Wolverine became the Amalgam character Dark Claw). These characters first appeared in a series of twelve comic books which were published in 1996, following the Marvel vs DC miniseries. A second set (of another twelve comic books) followed a year later. Fictional origin The two comic universes came together when the incarnations of their respective universes (referred to as "the Brothers") became aware of each other after eons of slumber. To prevent the Brothers from destroying each other, characters from each universe battled to determine which universe would survive; several of the matches were determined by online voting. Axel Asher, a character created for the event (co-owned by Marvel and DC), served as a gatekeeper who became stuck traveling between both Universes. When the fights concluded (including controversial victories by Wolverine and Storm over Lobo and Wonder Woman, respectively), neither universe was willing to go. To prevent total destruction, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal created a merged universe in which only Axel Asher and Doctor Strangefate knew the truth. The two struggled against each other to reverse or preserve the change. Eventually, Axel Asher, now called Access, managed to separate the Brothers with the help of Amalgam's other heroes. Before the merger had taken place, he had planted pure 'shards' of the universes in Batman and Captain America, and once he discovered Dark Claw and Super Soldier, he used those shards to give the Spectre and the Tribunal the power to restore the universes. Batman, Captain America, and Access were thus able to make the Brothers realize that their conflict was pointless, and all returned to normal. Publication history For two months, Marvel and DC published Amalgam Comics. During the publication of Amalgam Comics, the companies treated it as if it had always existed, giving it a fictional history stretching back to the Golden Age of Comics, as well as retcons and reboots, such as the Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour (an amalgam of Secret Wars, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinity Gauntlet, and Zero Hour), including an Amalgam version of the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, with Super-Soldier holding his sidekick's body. Amalgam One-Shots - First Series The various Amalgam one-shots printed in April 1996: *'Amazon': An amalgam of Storm and Wonder Woman *'Assassins': Dare was an amalgam of Deathstroke, his daughter Rose, and Daredevil; Catsai was an amalgam of Elektra and Catwoman *'Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.': An amalgam of Bruce Wayne and Nick Fury *'Bullets and Bracelets': An amalgam of the Punisher and Steve Trevor alongside another analogue to Wonder Woman *'Doctor Strangefate': An amalgam of Doctor Strange and Dr. Fate with hints of Professor X *'JLX': An amalgam of the X-Men and the Justice League of America *'Legends of the Dark Claw': An amalgam of Wolverine and Batman *'Magneto and the Magnetic Men': An analogue of Magneto (reimagined as a brother to an alternate Will Magnus), alongside amalgams of the Brotherhood of Mutants and the Metal Men *'Speed Demon': An amalgam of Ghost Rider, Etrigan, and the Flash *'Spider-Boy': An amalgam of Spider-Man and Superboy *'Super Soldier': An amalgam of Superman and Captain America *'X-Patrol': An amalgam of X-Force and the Doom Patrol Amalgam One-Shots - Second Series Here are a list of the various Amalgam one-shots printed in June 1997. *'Bat-Thing': Man-Bat and Man-Thing *'Challengers Of the Fantastic': The Fantastic Four and The Challengers of the Unknown *'The Darkclaw Adventures': Wolverine and Batman (Animated) *'The Exciting X-Patrol': X-Force and Doom Patrol *'Generation Hex': Generation X (plus other X-Men) and Jonah Hex (plus other DC American Old West heroes) *'Iron Lantern': Iron Man and Green Lantern *'JLX Unleashed': X-Men and The Justice League of America *'Lobo The Duck': Howard the Duck and Lobo *'Magnetic Men: Featuring Magneto': Magneto and the Metal Men *'Spider-Boy Team-Up': Spider-Man and Superboy, teamed-up with two versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy and two versions of the Legion of Super-Heroe *'Super Soldier: Man of War': Captain America and Superman *'Thorion of the New Asgods': Thor and Orion External links *Amalgam Comics on Wikipedia *Amalgam Comics on DC Database *Amalgam Database Project Category:Imprints